Enigma Fenn (13) D1F
"So, am I in or out?" I asked the Careers unceremoniously. Some of them weren't totally sure how they felt about me, but most of them knew that Tiger was a bigger ally than I was, so they were going to reject me. I was just asking to make it clear that I didn't ditch the Careers - they ditched me - and as such, I could kill them shamelessly, whereas it would be frowned upon for them to hunt me down.
"Sorry, but I think you're out," Pumice, the Two male said. It wasn't hard to tell that Tiger had been nagging them to reject me, and that they accepted his complaints. It was no matter. I was more likely to get tons of sponsors on my own, since I was a cute little genius. My hope was that their curiosity would overtake them and convince them that I was worth throwing away money on. After all, I had been showing off my whole time in the Capitol.
That being said, there wasn't much of a point in me allying. It wasn't strategic, because any outlier strong enough to be of use would be smart enough to reject me, and useless allies, fun though they may be, would make me less likely to get sponsors from the curious side of Panem, and the cute side of Panem, if I wasted them. That meant I was going the Games alone, which would drastically change my training strategy from if I had been a Careers. Careers showed off all but two strengths in training as a pattern. I couldn't do that if I wasn't a Career; it was all or nothing, and I was going for nothing.
Knowing my strengths, I wanted all of my sponsor gifts to help me kill people. It would be harder to fashion a murder weapon than find myself a bit of food, and I could go for weeks without food if I really had to. Water and food would be what I trained in, so people wouldn't expect me to do things myself, and sponsors would give me stuff. I also had to choose something I absolutely stank at, which was survival skills. I had never bothered to learn those, sticking with manipulation and killing. Now I would be totally underestimated as the cocky Career that had no idea what she was doing.
"What plant is this?" I asked the trainer shyly. I had to keep my act up at all times, in case anyone was watching. If I dropped my guard and got caught, everything fell to pieces, and suddenly I was being overestimated without knowing it. That was never a good thing. Of course, I was going to overestimate my opponents no matter what, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Oh! That's a honeydew flower. You can't eat those - or, I should say, they won't do you much good - but they're a good notifier that honeydew may be nearby! What brings you to the plant station?" the trainer replied, surprisingly interested in me. I'm nothing special, I willed her to believe. She couldn't go drawing attention to me.
"I need to know a lot of plants, since the Careers rejected me," I said calmly. I considered crying for a second, but I didn't need the Capitolites to think I was weak, only the tributes. She looked at me pitifully and nodded.
"All right, you definitely will. Well, this is milkweed. It's good to know that you can eat it, although most tributes won't. You have to boil it twice before you eat it, which is why. Most people assume it's inedible because of that, or they decide it's not worth the effort of preparing. It's also a bit risky, because you might alert other tributes of your position. Still, it's good to eat something so your strength doesn't drop. Choose the lesser of two evils," my trainer said, seeming very knowledgeable about her subject. She held herself confidently and never missed a beat.
As my trainer spoke, I realized that this was definitely my forte. I had spent all my life training to recognize patterns of speech and motion in people, wanting to be able to spot any illnesses early and use other people to my gain. The same thing could work with plants. I could spot the tiniest speck of motion in an eye, but now I had to watch for a pointy instead of curved leaf. I would notice if someone started speaking more quietly than they used to, and I could notice if one plant was bigger than it should be. My strengths were tying into my weaknesses, and I could use that. I was actually learning.
I didn't forget Enigma! She's still kicking.
I feel like edible plants weren't supposed to be quite this easy for her, since they're like her main weakness (she's a Career, after all), but it's so logical that I decided to do it. She won't be this good at water, I guess. I'll throw something in there to mess her up somewhere.
If I asked you readers to, would you sponsor Enigma? I'd have to see where it went, but then I could see what you want her to work with and where you want her story to go, and with only like four of you, you may as well get that chance.